Indica Books & Gallery-Where London Began To Swing

Photo Credit: Rock Tour London - 6 Mason's Yard in 2022

In 1965, Barry Miles was working at London's Better Books, a bookshop and event venue for what was happening at the moment. Changes in ownership at Better Books provided the opportunity to open his own establishment which he did with John Dunbar and Peter Asher. In September 1965, Indica Books & Gallery were tenants at 6 Mason's Yard.

In May of 1965, John Dunbar had married Marianne Faithful and the couple lived in Mason's Yard. He was instrumental in securing the ground floor location at #6 for their new businesss. He and Marianne would welcome their son, Nicolas, in November of 1965.

Peter Asher, brother to Beatle Paul McCartney's girlfriend, Jane Asher, was storing books for the shop, pre-opening, in the basement of his parents home on Wimpole Street in Marylebone. McCartney was living in the Asher family home at the time and would wander to this collection and pick those he liked. He'd leave notes of what he took to have them added to his "tab" making him the shop's first customer. Both Paul and Jane would contribute to the shop. Jane donated a vintage Victorian till that she had played with as a child. That become the store's cash till. Paul helped to create flyers to spread the word and designed the wrapping paper the shopkeepers used to wrap purchases.

The Gallery/Bookshop officially opened on 28 January 1966.

The first proper show opened on 4 June 1966 with an exhibition of pieces from Groupe de Recherche de l'Art Visuel, or GRAV for short. This was a collective group of kinetic artists. Dunbar had driven to Italy to promote the gallery at XXXIII Venice Biennal. On his way back to London he heard on the car radio that Julio Le Parc, the co-founder of GRAV, had won the International Painting Grand Prix. Indica was showing the winner of the most prestigious art prize in the world in their very first show.

The location at #6 was very convenient in its location to the Scotch of St. James's at #13. That club was incredibly popular with the "in" crowd and entertained anyone who was anyone in 60s London. In early Novvember of 1966, John Dunbar popped in for a drink and ran into John Lennon. He asked his friend to come have a look at a new Japanese artist and help to support the gallery.

On 7 November 1966, John Lennon dropped into the Indica Gallery as he promised Dunbar he would. Everyone was workking diligently to hang pieces as the show, called Unfinished Paintings & Objects, was set to open the next day. After being introduced to the artist, Yoko Ono, Lennon was drawn to her piece called Ceiling Painting. It was a blank canvas attached flat on the ceiling with just one word written on it in very small letters. Climbing the ladder placed under the painting, Lennon ascended to the top, looked through the magnifying glass hanging from a string, to read the word "YES" on the canvas. He has said that was the moment he "sort of fell in love with Yoko."

The most popular piece of Ono's in the exhibition was her all white chess set: all the pieces

and squares were white and it was displayed on a white table with two white chairs. Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate visited several times, usually late at night, and spent hours playing with the display until they could no longer keep the pieces straight and would then abandon their game. They never bought the piece.

The bookshop moved on in the summer of 1966 and reopened at 102 Southampton Row. The gallery closed its doors on 3 November 1967.

John Lennon married Yoko Ono on 20 March 1969 on Gibraltar (near France).

Barry Miles went on to write several books, two of which became New York Times best sellers.

Marianne Faithful left John Dunbar and moved in with Mick Jagger. She lost custody of her son to her former husband.

Peter Asher went on to become the head of A&R for the Beatles' Apple Records and later managed and produced various artists.

Paul and Jane broke up in 1968.

In November of 2006, Sean Lennon performed a solo concert at St. James's Church to commemorate the 40th anniversary of his parents meeting, just around the corner from that church, at #6 Mason's Yard.

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